B.

4.)

In the Wake of the Storm: Katrina’s Story Has Only Begun

As the next hurricane season quickly approaches, beginning June 1, the Gulf Coast’s low-income communities of color are still left behind.  These communities' “days of hurt and loss are likely to become years of grief, dislocation and displacement,” says Manuel Pastor, co-director of the University of California/Santa Cruz Center of Justice, Tolerance and Community.

Six colleagues from different disciplines and universities, with the Russell Sage Foundation’s support, have probed environmental inequality and public health disparities in the United States in the new report In the Wake of the Storm: Environment, Disaster, and Race after Katrina.  Written by Manuel Pastor (Univ. CA/Santa Cruz), Robert Bullard (Clark Atlanta), James Boyce (Univ. of MA/Amherst), Alice Fothergill (Univ. of Vermont), Rachel Morello-Frosh (Brown University) and Beverly Wright (Dillard University), the report will shatter any remaining illusions that disaster rescue in the United States is an equal opportunity affair, in which all citizens enjoy the same chances for relief.

“We hope to shed light on many in the U.S. who live their own slow-motion Katrinas -- near toxics, suffering with or fearing chronic disease,” pledge the six, all senior scholars of environmental justice from across the U.S -- one of whom the hurricane displaced.

“The first step of a 12-step program is to admit you have a problem,” says sociologist Robert Bullard.  “Our findings suggest we’re hooked on hiding hazards among the most vulnerable and disenfranchised.  It’s time to face reality and offer new strategies.”

The authors document the history of disparities evident before, during and after disasters, to put Katrina in a broader context.  By tracking the slow recovery of low income people of color*due to less information, fewer loans, less government relief and racial bias in housing*they warn of disasters-in-the-making.  Additionally, they offer specific recommendations to guarantee environmental quality and incorporate community voices in the Gulf Coast.

In the Wake of the Storm calls for enforcing environmental standards, strengthening public health resources, conducting independent environmental monitoring and balancing green building and equitable development to prevent “hazard shifting” or displacing long-time residents and developing new mechanisms for community participation.